Low Morale

[Belbo]

Actually, I'm still a bit miffed about Mark's "Racist!" taunt.

It's notable firstly that he's thrown in his verbal hand-grenade but hasn't reacted to my intentionally taunting reply.

It's notable secondly that he hasn't launched the same vitriol the respected long-term SS posters making exactly the same point here (and continuing to do so, see above) as I was.

Perhaps he's sleeping off a hang-over? It was late, after all. (I woke in the early hours after a long week and an early night, and logged on groggily to a lambasting insult.)

Or perhaps he's reflecting on the fact that as white Australians, unjustifiably harbouring a virtual monopoly on power and prestige in this country by accident of birth alone, too many of us assume as white Australians that we're entitled to empowerment.

That WOULD be racist. I was making the point that we're not.

WHITE POWER!

 

[jaycee]

Actually, I'm still a bit miffed about Mark's "Racist!" taunt.

It's notable firstly that he's thrown in his verbal hand-grenade but hasn't reacted to my intentionally taunting reply.

It's notable secondly that he hasn't launched the same vitriol the respected long-term SS posters making exactly the same point here (and continuing to do so, see above) as I was.

Perhaps he's sleeping off a hang-over? It was late, after all. (I woke in the early hours after a long week and an early night, and logged on groggily to a lambasting insult.)

Or perhaps he's reflecting on the fact that as white Australians, unjustifiably harbouring a virtual monopoly on power and prestige in this country by accident of birth alone, too many of us assume as white Australians that we're entitled to empowerment.

That WOULD be racist. I was making the point that we're not.

WHITE POWER!

Dunno man, but you've confused me.

 

[handyandy]

Yeah, but the vast majority of people only dream of the end result, hardly any dream or are willing to do the hard yards to get there.


The day that I ran the cleaner off, my Dad (who's in his 70's) and I were literally bogging out the back of the transformer and electrical sub-station. Ten years of accumulated "stuff" came out in 7 wheelbarrow loads, including 4 soiled nappies, 3 used hypodermic needles, plenty of doggy do and a bunch of discarded other nasties. This was in the hot midday sun from noon 'til 1pm.


When you go back inside after that and see your one and only highly paid cleaner still sitting on her bum in the A/C not having moved a muscle.....well, it's time to start writing the 'Don't come Monday' letter.

Unfortunately I didn't think that it was going to be easy - I just didn't know how hard it would be and was looking forward to the revelations as you wandered down that path. Please keep us informed.

Re the 3 hypodermic needles I can match that and raise it 100 fold over the time that we have now had our blocks of units. The sad part is the flotsam that goes with the hypos and who we chase of (not to regularly now) the property. The police have actually starting patrolling one of our blocks after our complaints.

Keeping to the the vain - most of the druggies are Caucasian with the saddest example some time ago being a family of four where the parents were of their heads and lost one of their foils. This was actually not on my property but next door and their carry on attracted my attention. I offered to phone the police to help them find their property - seemed to move them on quickly.

As you say most people are not prepared to do the hard yards.

Cheers

 

[Ocean Architect]

Re the 3 hypodermic needles I can match that and raise it 100 fold over the time that we have now had our blocks of units. The sad part is the flotsam that goes with the hypos and who we chase of (not to regularly now) the property. The police have actually starting patrolling one of our blocks after our complaints.

I can contribute to this if you guys want to swap stories!

one morning, eating cornflakes and watching the news, when a picture of one of the family blocks of units flashes onto the TV with the newscaster saying in their very serious voice "yesterday morning the drug squad raided a property in xxxxx, apprehending 3 males allegedly involved in the sale and manufacture of amphetamins. The men, aged......" - it took a while for it to register, and I was like "that picture looks familiar, I wonder why. It kind of looks like...wait...wha? wuhwuh? WTF HHEEEEYYYYY!!"

went in another time to clean out one of the units. went to turn on the light, and one of the fluoros wasnt working. cool, ill change it. off comes the cover, and down come tumbling a pile of syringes and a plastic wrapped bag of who knows what, narrowly avoiding turning me into an AIDS pincushion. Down the toilet with the package, into a chlorine bottle with the sharps, and off I go to get gumboots and domestos.

Went in another time to renovate another unit, doing some demolition, la dee da de da, start ripping out cabinets, and noticed a strange apparatus in the corner made of flyscreen. I was naive back then, and had nfi what this stuff was. So while looking at it in puzzlement, my eyes went down to the industrial sized bag of marijuana in the corner of the cabinet. (it was old, clearly this was someones private stash and they didnt take it with them or got locked up, who knows).

Anyway those are the more tellable tales, the rest of it was the stock standard finding half full bags of weed, syringes, tiny marijuana plants growing in the landscaping, more syringes, tenants out of their minds on meth scaring the life out of people, massive rampant alcoholics stacking beer cans to the ceiling (literally. the ceiling.) and weeing everywhere like racehorses, crazy goth prostitutes painting the walls black, ah it was great.

Thank God we renovated. Now the worst thing going on is this asian lady who insists on drying fish on the clothesline. its like panties, panties, frilly panties, bra, bra, shirt, bra, frilly panties, dead fish, panties, panties, singlet, barramundi, shirt, shirt, shirt, skidmark jocks, snapper fillet, panties, frilly panties. In the right mood youll laugh your **** off at that block

 

[handyandy]

Hi OA

Where the hell do you operate!!!! Seems like a similar area to ours - or was.

You have reminded me of a similar moment when we went on a bareboat trip to the Whitsundays. Listening to the radio heard there had been a shooting general vicinity. My boys start kidding 'hey that could be one of our units etc' and we all had a laugh but ----

Couple of days later get a message from the PM that tenant (drug dealer) had been shot in the stomach through the one way mesh drug dealing security door.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-31334798.html

By the time I arrived back in Sydney tenant had cleared out and I had another unit to renovate.

In another unit we also found bullet holes in the main bedroom window of a 1 st floor unit with the appropriate ricochet marks on the walls and ceiling. The ceiling marks are still there to this day as it is a vermiculite ceiling.

Its all just part of the fun.

Cheers

 

[evand]

When i had my electrical business we did contract maintenance for commercial centres, shopping centers etc and they all used contractors. They didn't want to get caught up in the employee crap.

Its generally accepted that whatever wage you are paying someone, you can double it to include holidays, super, compo, and all the other costs of being an employer. Was $130k their yearly quote? Probably still cheaper then 2 cleaners with all the costs.


I didn't take it the wrong way, it was that Marc was talking about employees and you were talking about one cleaner. I thought that was apples and oranges comparison.

evand - no it wouldn't be better to offer it to a cleaning contractor / company. Their rates started at 130K pa and went up from there....and then they started banging on about OH&S laws which would have cost me about 110K to rectify stuff they saw as 'risky for their workers - need to fix those before we could even start'.

- and no, I wasn't trying to compare my experiences with Marc's, once again you've taken it the wrong way and twisted up what we've both written.

 

[Ocean Architect]

Hi OA

Where the hell do you operate!!!! Seems like a similar area to ours - or was.

You have reminded me of a similar moment when we went on a bareboat trip to the Whitsundays. Listening to the radio heard there had been a shooting general vicinity. My boys start kidding 'hey that could be one of our units etc' and we all had a laugh but ----

Couple of days later get a message from the PM that tenant (drug dealer) had been shot in the stomach through the one way mesh drug dealing security door.

By the time I arrived back in Sydney tenant had cleared out and I had another unit to renovate.

In another unit we also found bullet holes in the main bedroom window of a 1 st floor unit with the appropriate ricochet marks on the walls and ceiling. The ceiling marks are still there to this day as it is a vermiculite ceiling.

Its all just part of the fun.

Cheers

It was actually a good area, it's just that some members of my family belong to the "never renovate anything ever, because itll take you a year to get your money back so whats the point" school of economic theory. Funnily enough, with a retile, repaint, and some new cabinetry (total cost about $5k per unit, doing work ourselves of course...free labour machine that I am ) the block went from being the Bronx to being quite nice.

You got bullet holes? Real, live bullet holes? Never telling a story around you again. just cant win

 

[cu@thetop]

Yes - $ 39 per hour.

You've been punk'd. WTF were you thinking? Must be a labour shortage in WA for that rate to be considered.

The rest of your story is unfortunately all too plausible. There is a saying that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys but I think the opposite can occur- you pay well and people who were never in that bracket suddenly find themselves thinking they are better then they are and worth more. It is a very fine balance.

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

It was actually a good area, it's just that some members of my family belong to the "never renovate anything ever, because itll take you a year to get your money back so whats the point" school of economic theory. Funnily enough, with a retile, repaint, and some new cabinetry (total cost about $5k per unit, doing work ourselves of course...free labour machine that I am ) the block went from being the Bronx to being quite nice.

I remember being scared off renovating for some time thanks to my parents renovating the family home when I was a teenager. I took 7 years.

And yet, strangely, when I wanted to freshen up some units (new bathroom, paint, carpet, curtains, and a few jobs) the builder was in and out and done in under 4 weeks! And it cost waaaaay less than I thoguht it would.

I reckon renovating, when done carefully, is a terrific way to add both capital value and rental potential.

 

[jaycee]

You've been punk'd. WTF were you thinking? Must be a labour shortage in WA for that rate to be considered.

The rest of your story is unfortunately all too plausible. There is a saying that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys but I think the opposite can occur- you pay well and people who were never in that bracket suddenly find themselves thinking they are better then they are and worth more. It is a very fine balance.

$39/hour.. I'd almost seriously consider that

 

[Dazz]

You've been punk'd. WTF were you thinking?

Hey - what can I say - I'm new to this game of being an employer, and it's not every day you take on a shopping centre for the first time. Sure, we got screwed for a few months....but I eventually wake up to the malarkey.

Must be a labour shortage in WA for that rate to be considered.

Well, you get fat and lazy 18 y.o. with no qualifications, no experience and cannot read and write up on the rigs and mines earning over 100K pa and telling the bosses the work is **** and they are "outta here" to go and find a proper job cos the "pay sux".

So, an F1 broom and mop operator doesn't really compete.

We got there in the end.

 

[Ocean Architect]

I remember being scared off renovating for some time thanks to my parents renovating the family home when I was a teenager. I took 7 years.

And yet, strangely, when I wanted to freshen up some units (new bathroom, paint, carpet, curtains, and a few jobs) the builder was in and out and done in under 4 weeks! And it cost waaaaay less than I thoguht it would.

I reckon renovating, when done carefully, is a terrific way to add both capital value and rental potential.

absolutely, especially if you're generally good with your hands and are patient. The first time I installed steel stud walls, plasterboard, and flushed/painted it (I had never flushed plasterboard before) I had no idea, so got on youtube and watched a few guys doing it. Cutting a long story short, youtube plus $40 worth of tools from bunnings plus my power drill/jackhammer, and a $2600 plastering contract turned into a $500 job that took about 4 hours the first day, then 2 hours a night for the next 3 nights.

Honestly, cosmetic stuff like tiles/plaster/paint is just arts and craft for adults. When youre a kid, you make a fish or whatever out of a toilet roll, glitter, and clag glue, and as an adult you make a wall out of steel and plaster using tin snips, a drill, and gyprock. Big whoops, and you can spend $3k to pump up the value of your property by $20k in a fortnight

 

[Comper100]

I have to agree to a certain extent with the laziness claim. I work for a Camper van company that mainly employs backpackers and the like. I run the Adelaide depot and have gone from just a mechanic to depot manager, so now I hire people during the busy months to help me out. Having been thrown into the employer role I now truely understand just how hard it is to find a good worker.

My Boss is QLD will always pick foreigners (like myself) over Aussies. When I first started i worked with the most laziest person i have ever met (Aussie) Subsequently she was fired once I got to grips with the company. Since I've had some blinding employees and some shockers... I've just had one girl who was quite slow shall we say just text me one day to say she had a headache ans shes not coming in....then never to be seen again! Its amazing.

An old colleague phoned me today who was a very good worker from WA, great ethics and personality to work. He commented on how the lack of personalization these days is no good for business and relationships.. .emails and texts to deliver quite important information etc. The amount of people who I've had start work, especially the younger generation who think its perfectly acceptable to go on the internet during work hours on the work computer is astonishing! Woe betide anyone who tells them not to either..."oh well you do it!" "Err yes because im the F%^&ing BOSS!" Man i must have been brought up very differently

Tis an interesting and potentially depressing task that of employment!

 

[Dazz]

The amount of people who I've had start work, especially the younger generation who think its perfectly acceptable to go on the internet during work hours on the work computer is astonishing! Woe betide anyone who tells them not to either..."oh well you do it!" "Err yes because im the F%^&ing BOSS!" Man i must have been brought up very differently

That stems from the falsehoods pumped into every child nowadays by their parents that they are just the same as everyone else - no better no worse. Everyone is equal in Australia. That furphy is then re-inforced at primary school, ramped up even more at high school and then spun up their kyber wazoo at Uni.

It's only when they get out into the real world away from politically correct Education Dept dictums that they realise they are the bottom of the food chain, and the CEOs of the world don't consider the little fresh graduates to be equal to them, nor the 15 layers of wannabe corporate climbers between them. Whoops - religiously protected from the realities of life by all and sundry for 20 years, just hit them fair in the face.

Straight into the sausage machine and spat out the other end. You're not so special champ. Next.

 

[Comper100]

That stems from the falsehoods pumped into every child nowadays by their parents that they are just the same as everyone else - no better no worse..

Very very true....

 

[RumpledElf]

Very very true....

And I keep trying to tell my eldest she needs to learn how to communicate like everyone else or she won't get anywhere in the workplace (I have extreme trouble understanding her - she tends to use 500 words when 3 will do, skirts around questions, doubletalks, changes her answer 4 or 5 times in one conversation, uses double or triple negatives instead of a single positive, basically watch any long-term evasive politician talk about campaign promises and you've got her nailed 100%).

Her current annoying habit is going around asking everyone how much they earn, because for some reason she thinks she needs to decide on a career NOW or something. The looks on people's faces while they work out how to answer that question is priceless. Because, you know, you decide your future career based on how much you'll make, not what you're good at. But she's ruled out vet, doctor and dentist because they are ikky and checkout chick because it looks boring.

You've experienced trying to hire Gen Y - wait till Gen Z hits the employment market. They're even MORE entrenched in the everyone-is-special mantra, and the ones with younger parents will be second generation me me me.

 

[jaycee]

And I keep trying to tell my eldest she needs to learn how to communicate like everyone else or she won't get anywhere in the workplace (I have extreme trouble understanding her - she tends to use 500 words when 3 will do, skirts around questions, doubletalks, changes her answer 4 or 5 times in one conversation, uses double or triple negatives instead of a single positive, basically watch any long-term evasive politician talk about campaign promises and you've got her nailed 100%).

Her current annoying habit is going around asking everyone how much they earn, because for some reason she thinks she needs to decide on a career NOW or something. The looks on people's faces while they work out how to answer that question is priceless. Because, you know, you decide your future career based on how much you'll make, not what you're good at. But she's ruled out vet, doctor and dentist because they are ikky and checkout chick because it looks boring.

You've experienced trying to hire Gen Y - wait till Gen Z hits the employment market. They're even MORE entrenched in the everyone-is-special mantra, and the ones with younger parents will be second generation me me me.

She's a child, I'm gen x. If I talked abuot the subject of work at that age, I'd probably have said somehting similar to that too.

Each generation says the same thing about the next... You reckon my mother didn't say the same things about me ? I've been wondering about this younger genration lately.. but I can't get this other niggling thought out of my head which is "Maybe you're getting old John !"

 

[Ocean Architect]

You've experienced trying to hire Gen Y - wait till Gen Z hits the employment market. They're even MORE entrenched in the everyone-is-special mantra, and the ones with younger parents will be second generation me me me.

I agree with that. They're total crackheads.

 

[BayView]

She's a child, I'm gen x. If I talked abuot the subject of work at that age, I'd probably have said somehting similar to that too.

Each generation says the same thing about the next... You reckon my mother didn't say the same things about me ? I've been wondering about this younger genration lately.. but I can't get this other niggling thought out of my head which is "Maybe you're getting old John !"

I don't think the generations of 20+ years ago lived at home until they were 40.

 

[jaycee]

I don't think the generations of 20+ years ago lived at home until they were 40.

Are you kidding me or what ?

The first generations I knew of who did it, was the generation before mine. Growing up in this "Genration X" I remmber a backlash towards the old school idea of staying a home with parents - pffft, who'd want that... then I found the answer.. lots..... ! I hae a number of freinds who stayed at home till they got married, another one who stayed at home till he built his house etc etc...whillst I moved out to rent at 21 with $0 savings and no car

Generation Y are nowhere near 40 yrs of age yet, so it's can't be them who are staying at home till 40 yrs of age, so who are these people you speak of ? I reckon they are the previous generatins I spoke of...